Alleged Gang Members Indicted In Deaths Of Man, Teen Girl In Detroit Last December
DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - Two alleged gang members have been indicted in the fatal shooting of two people in Detroit last year— charges that could make them eligible for the federal death penalty.
A 21-year-old man and a 13-year-old girl were killed while sitting in a parked car outside a market on Hayes in broad daylight, Dec. 1, on the city's east side.
Edwin Lamont Mills, aka "Edboy," and Carlo Dajuan Wilson, aka "Los," were charged in an indictment that was unsealed Wednesday.
Prosecutors say they belong to a gang called Six Mile Chedda Grove, described in the indictment as " violent organization responsible for murders, assaults, robberies and firearms and narcotics trafficking across metro Detroit and in other states. "Chedda" is slang for drug money and a reference to Cedargrove Street, which is considered gang territory, near Six Mile.
"The gang uses violence to retaliate against rivals, to intimidate witnesses and to advance members' positions within the gang," according to prosecutors.
The 26-year-old Mills and 22-year-old Wilson are accused of firing into the car, killing two people inside and injuring two others.
U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said it's believed the gunmen were aiming at the 21-year-old.
"The allegation is that the two shooters came and shot, we believe, at the driver," she told WWJ Newsradio 950's Sandra McNeill. "But in the court of doing that acted in careless disregard, killed the passenger — a 13-year-old girl — and the kids who were on the hood of the car, you know, fell off and were run over by the car because the driver had been shot."
McQuade said the motive appears to have been gang-related revenge.
"But, what's so troubling about a case like this, is just the utter disregard for the lives of others, including children. And that's why a case like this is so important, to try to show that we really are going to defend the children of Detroit."
Mills and Wilson are charged with two counts each of murder in aid of racketeering, assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering and using and carrying a firearm during a crime of violence causing death.
The defendants were scheduled to make an initial appearances in federal court in Detroit Wednesday afternoon.
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